Remnants
by Paige Darke
Summary: A series of short, episodic one-shots in no particular order. A tribute to my latest obsession. Each will revolve around a single character or a pair of characters. Warning: Occasionally DARK.
1. Cold

Title -- Cold

Character -- Constance Welch (The Woman In White)

Category -- Horror/Angst

Parings -- None

Spoilers -- Pilot

Summary -- She's always so cold.

She's always so cold -- so cold she's forgotten what it's like to be warm. All she feels now is the cold.

So many nights she relives it -- the walk down the road, along the side of it, followed by the leap off the bridge -- that it's starting to be the only path she can follow.

There are nights it changes. Nights where, as she's going down the road, a man will stop, and even before she gets in the car, she can sense the greed and lust and covetousness in his heart. And most of them, when she asks them to go home with her, are so thrilled at their luck they never stop to think at what they really see.

In the end, they are all her husband. In the end, they all pay for his mistake instead of their own.

In the end, she is alone again.

In the end, she is still cold.

In the end, she can never go home.

_End_

Disclaimer -- All characters that you recognize belong to CW, WB, etc.


	2. Cookies

Title -- Cookies

Character -- Sam Winchester

Category -- Horror/Angst

Pairing(s) -- Sam/Jessica

Spoilers -- Pilot

Summary -- She baked him cookies.

In Sam's dreams, it's always still in the apartment, still and dark. He can hear the shower running, and there is the smell of fresh cookies in the apartment, and it makes him smile, as he stops and reads the note.

She baked him cookies.

Sometimes, she did things like that. Sweet things, nice things.

Jessica things.

In his dreams, he relives the rest of that night. He relives eating that cookie -- she was a pretty good baker -- and dropping his bag, going into the bedroom and stretching out on the bed, thinking about his interview and listening to the shower.

The feel of the blood dripping onto his head.

He opens his eyes, and sees her, pinned there, staring down at him.

The worst part is the fact that, in the dreams, she's not dead. She's breathing, staring down at him, wanting to know _why_. Why she's dead, why he let this happen to her.

Why he lied to her.

And then he wakes up, jerking awake in the Impala, in the motel, tears in his eyes, a scream lodged in his throat, the taste of chocolate chip cookie on his tongue.

_End_


	3. Price

Title -- Price

Character -- Dean Winchester

Category -- Horror/Angst

Pairing(s) -- None

Spoilers -- Bloody Mary

Summary -- That's just the price you pay.

Dean reflects, as they leave Toledo, after Sam refuses to answer his question, that sometimes, there are good things about Sam. Even though Dean pushes, even though he wants to know everything, wants to know all of Sam's secrets, Sam never asks about his own.

Sam would never think to turn it around and ask his own questions, like, _Hey, I wasn't the only one bleeding from the eyeballs, wanna explain that_?

Sam's not the only one who has nightmares, although Dean never mentions his own -- he figures it's the price you pay for this job. Every hunter has nightmares.

Every hunter has secrets. Every hunter has failed someone, at least once. Every hunter has failed to save a life.

Most of these don't nag at him -- hey, you can't save everyone.

There's one, though, one that plagues his conscience, the secret Mary found in his heart.

Sometimes your ghosts weren't the helpless people you had failed -- sometimes you ghost was another hunter, someone who's back you were supposed to be watching, someone who died on your watch.

Dean would always remember that day, breaking into the creature's lair, finding it completely and utterly empty, apparently abandoned, starting to look through the stuff left behind -- and hearing Derek scream as it burst back in and tore him apart. He still remembers killing it, rushing to Derek's side to see if there was anything he could do.

He remembers Derek sliding his wedding band off his finger and pressing it into Dean's hand, telling him to take it to his wife.

He remember's the crushed look in her eyes when he brings her the ring and curses himself for not washing the damn blood off.

But, sometimes, that's just the price you pay for the job.

At least, that's what he tells himself.

_End_


	4. Changed

Title -- Changed

Character -- Sarah Blake

Category -- Supernatural/Romance

Pairing(s) -- A hint of Sam/Sarah

Spoilers -- Provenances, Season One

Summary -- Before she met Sam Winchester, she was a normal girl. Really.

Before she met Sam Winchester, she was a normal girl. Really, she was. Granted, she was a hell of an art historian, she knew a lot about a lot of different art, and she was even an excellent salesperson and a canny businesswoman.

But before she met Sam Winchester, Sarah Blake wasn't _paranoid_.

She'd had no idea of the things that went bump in the night, and she would have massively preferred for it to stay that way.

But now -- now she knew there were _things_ out there, and these _things_ were farm from harmless.

When she moved out of the family home and back into her own place, she went three days before she started salting the doors and windows and invested in an iron fireset.

You could never be too careful.

She told herself it was paranoid, ridiculous, and completely not what Sam would want. Sam would want her to live as much of her life as normally as possible.

But, Sarah reflected, she just couldn't. Not now that she knew.

And it wasn't like she regretted it. She'd liked Sam, she really had. She still hopes he'll come back, to see her, maybe stay a little longer this time. And he won't look at her funny when he comes into her apartment and salt crunches under his feet because she didn't manage to sweep it all up before company came.

Even though two years have passed, she thinks back on that day in the graveyard, in Evelyn's house, with fondness, despite the near-death and pee-your-pants scares. Because her life had changed, and she had met a good men -- two of them, although she was especially soft on the taller of the two.

What girl wouldn't be changed after an adventure with the Winchester boys?

_End_


	5. Running

Title -- Running

Character -- Hailey

Category -- Horror/Angst

Pairing(s) -- None

Spoilers -- Wendigo

Summary -- Eventually, she'll be able to go into the woods again without peeing herself.

Eventually, Hailey thinks, she'll be able to go into the woods again without peeing herself.

The creature is destroyed, but, somehow, that doesn't help. There's a part of her that will always dream about it, that will always see that hideous, not-quite-human face in the shadows.

There's a part of her that will always dream of finding Tommy like they'd found his friends, stripped off flesh, bones cracked for the marrow.

She's running, running away, as fast as she can, the back of Dean's black jacket in her sights, before something grabs him, she hears breaking glass, and wakes up with her own scream echoing in her head.

She loves Tommy, just like she loves Ben. Her brothers are all she has. And she's grateful to have her brother back, but sometimes she wishes she'd never heard of Sam and Dean.

_End_


	6. Shaken

Title -- Shaken

Character(s) -- Sam, Dean

Category -- Humor/Horror

Pairing(s) -- None

Spoilers -- Phantom Traveller

Summary -- Dean? Shaken?

_Really. You're never afraid._

_No, not really_.

It's sort of funny, really. Now, those words are an absolutely obvious lie.

You so rarely see Dean fall apart, and over something like flying -- well, that's just...well, sort of funny, that's all.

_Just try to relax._

_Just try to shut up_.

Spoken in an absolutely furious tone of voice.

It's sort of hilarious, in that near-death experience kind of way.

Dean. Shaken.

Will wonders never cease.

And Sam knows he shouldn't be amused at this, because someone on this plane is possessed, and very shortly it's probably going to crash, taking both him and his brother out with it -- but in a way, it's worth the danger to see Dean's eyes go huge when the landing gear goes up.

_End_


	7. Brother

Title -- Brother

Character(s) -- Sam, Dean

Category -- Angst/Family

Pairing(s) -- None

Spoilers -- Skin

Summary -- For days, he'll have fresh nightmares.

For days, he'll have fresh nightmares -- not of Jess, but of his own brother standing over him, his blood on his brother's hands. The swinging pool cue, the crazed green eyes, the familiar smirk at the kicks and punches.

He knows Dean knows about them, sees Dean watching him, but Dean never says anything, just lets him work it out and come to him.

When that doesn't work, Dean finally says, one day the next week, as he's driving, sitting behind the wheel of the Impala, without looking at Sam, _You know I'd never hurt you, right?_

Sam nodded slowly, still staring out the window. _I know. Just...kinda scary, you know? It wasn't that it was you...it was that someone tried to use you against me. My own brother._

_Well, I am your brother,_ Dean replied. _And I'd never do that. Hey, I might kick your ass once in awhile, but I'd never hurt you like that, Sammy. _Never.

Sam smiled slightly. _I know._

That night, he sleeps without dreams.

_End_


End file.
